


Empathetic Healing

by Rangergirl3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [11]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BAMF Allura (Voltron), Fantastic Racism, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Lotor is not in this but Holy Shit he is mentioned A Lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 22:09:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19935283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3
Summary: The Altean Colony does not play nicely with those who ‘claim’ that Lotor was an evil person.Allura and Keith find this out in a diplomatic mission that goes south in a spectacular fashion.Details are vague, but it included at least three explosions, two laser gun shootouts, and one angry mob.While trying to escape the planet, one of them gets caught. Guess which one it is.





	Empathetic Healing

**Author's Note:**

> For Lionswaps on Tumblr: If you're still taking prompts and no one's requested it yet, it would be super rad to see either Empathic Healing or Don't Let Them See You Cry, maybe with some Keith+Allura friendship? <3

Immediately after she activates it, Allura thanks the Ancients, her lucky constellations, and Pidge’s ingenius mind for coming up with the invisibility tech patch. 

True, it is the only one in existence, and it is still in the prototype phase, but if it helps her and Keith get away from a bunch of angry Altean colonists, Allura will see to it that Pidge’s lab is doubled - no, tripled in size as a way of saying thank you. 

Then again, Pidge would probably prefer a detailed ‘how it worked in the field’ report.

Assuming they both survived this, of course.

* * *

_Earlier that day_

“Allura?”

”Yes?”

Keith glanced around the deserted colony as they continued on foot. 

“Do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched?”

Allura hummed non-committedly. 

“Sometimes.”

Keith stops mid-step. 

“Like, now-ish?”

She pivots gracefully, bringing her bayard up to bear. 

“Yes. Now-ish.”

That was when the first attack had hit them.

* * *

_Three explosions, two fire-fights, and one angry mob later_

“I gotta say,” Keith panted as they ran through the dense forest surrounding the colony. “I sort of - wish - we had our Lions - right about - now -“

Allura almost doesn’t answer. She has no breath to spare.

Keith stumbles, nearly falls. She pulls him to his feet and together, they keep running through the undergrowth. Sounds of pursuit are not far behind.

Allura gasps out what little encouragement she can.

”Pod’s over here - somewhere - Romelle is waiting for us - it’ll be fine-“

Something cuts through the foliage directly to her right. Something else whips past her left leg. Only seconds later, Keith goes down. 

“Keith!”

She tries to pull him back up, but his legs are tangled in some kind of net. She curses in ancient Altean, but the pursuit is only a few dozen yards away. 

“Get out of here,” Keith snarls at her. He’s already hacking at the cords with his luxcite dagger. “I’m right behind you.”

”No,” She snarls back at him, but even as she does, the net around his legs is yanked backwards. He’s dragged several feet backwards, away from her, almost straight out into the open. 

He curses, throws her the luxite knife. She scrabbles at it, staring back at him uncomprehendingly.

”What are y-“

Another net lands over him, twisting as it lands. The cords seem to have a life of their own.

“Get out of here,” he tells her again. Then, without warning, he’s gone, dragged out of the undergrowth and out into the open clearing. 

She curses, activates her invisibility setting, and scrambles into the shadows a few paces away. 

Not a moment too soon. 

Spears tear through the leaves and bushes, embedding themselves into the ground where she had just been.

An Altean crashes into the clearing, followed by another. Allura remains completely still, even when they retrieve their spears and lash out again. One of them barely misses her helmeted head, but they soon decide she’s made good her escape.

”Shame,” one of them growls. “It would have been best if we’d caught both of them.’

His companion’s face splits into an unpleasant grin. “Well, the half-breed doesn’t know that, now, does he?”

The first Altean raises an eyebrow questioningly. “Meaning...?”

In answer, the second Altean thrusts his spear deep into the wood of a tree, where deep red sap drenches the blade almost instantly. Allura’s heart almost stops at the solider’s plan.

Even from close up, the red-soaked spear seems to have been newly drenched in blood. Altean blood, to be precise.

The first Altean looks impressed. 

“Clever.”

He does the same, and then the two soldiers turn and leave the clearing. 

Allura squeezes her eyes tight shut, not daring to make a sound, even though she senses what is coming.

There’s an awful, stretching kind of silence just before the screaming begins.

* * *

* * *

At first, when he hears the heavy thud of spear impacting a target, Keith doesn’t understand. He can’t put it together. The very thought of it is just too awful.

Then the first Altean strides out of the clearing, wiping his spear blade clean.

_No._

_Please, no._

In the frozen moment between seeing the red-stained cloth drop to the ground, and acknowledging what it means, Keith doesn’t dare stop fighting. If he stops now, he might never be able to fight again.

If he can get free - if he can make it back to her - maybe he can get her to the Castle. That’s what the healing pods did, right, they healed fatal injuries - he just - had to get to her in time -

The rest of the colonists have already encircled him, but he doesn’t care. _He doesn’t care_. 

Allura’s hurt. She might be dying. He needs to help her. 

_She’s his **friend**._

The colonists throw another net over him. He thrashes, biting and clawing and kicking as fiercely as he can, but then there’s another thud of impact, and the second Altean emerges from the trees.

His spear blade is -

“NO!”

Someone’s screaming. It’s a sound that Keith doesn’t recognize.

They begin pulling him away, but he fights against them. Just for an instant, he holds his own against them all.

“Allura!” 

Someone kicks him in the chest. He ignores it.

”ALLURA!”

More kicks, landing everywhere at once, his back, his legs, his stomach, his ribs.

He can’t move. 

He can’t fight.

Someone’s crying. 

“...no...please... _no._..”

One of the spear-bearing Alteans kicks the side of Keith’s head and sends him into darkness.

But only for a short time.

* * *

* * *

Later that night, Allura dares to infiltrate the enemy encampment, with Romelle at her side.

Both of them are terrified of what they might find. 

Their fears are confirmed when they enter the now-abandoned abandoned tent that had been designated as a make-shift interrogation center in a clearing not far from where Keith had been brought down.

Allura’s boots make soft imprints on the muddy floor, and it’s only when Romelle chokes back a cry that the Altean Princess realizes what has been churned into the dirt beneath her feet. 

Blood.

* * *

* * *

Keith hears footsteps approaching, but that’s all he knows for certain. After the Alteans got tired of trying to make him talk, they just left him hanging from the wrists and left him there, in the dark and the cold.

He can’t see. They threw salt in his eyes after the beatings didn’t give them what they wanted.

He can’t talk. His throat’s too raw from screaming.

He can’t move. He’s lost too much blood, and from the pain in his chest, it’s entirely possible he has a fractured rib.

But he’s already failed one teammate today. 

He’ll be _damned_ before he gives up the Castle’s coordinates.

That’s the last thing he knows before his mind finally disconnects from his body. Sometimes, disassociation could be a good thing.

* * *

Romelle stands watch by the tent’s entrance while Allura cuts Keith down. He doesn’t move at all, not even when the Princess hugs him close and settles onto the floor, leaning him against her so that they both end up in a sitting position.

”Can he make it back to the shuttle?” Their friend asks. 

Allura shakes her head. 

“No. Not without help.”

Voices, movement from somewhere nearby. 

Romelle adjusts her grip on the laser gun.

”Can you carry him?”

Allura’s eyes flick from one injury to another, her expression creasing into one of distress as the full measure of the damage is tallied.

”Not in his present condition. It might kill him.”

”Then what do we do?!”

* * *

Allura takes a deep breath. 

“Watch the entrance. This won’t take long.”

Romelle clearly wants to understand what Allura’s plan is, but she does as Allura asks. 

Allura casts all other thoughts and worries from her mind, and focuses solely on Keith.

If she can take on some of his injuries, even just a few, she should be able to get him back to the shuttle and then all three of them can leave this place. 

But to do that, she needs to feel what he is feeling, understand what is going through his mind.

She concentrates, and soon enough, she senses the aches and bruises, hears the thoughts going on inside his head.

Lotor wasn’t evil. He was ‘just contaminated by his Galra heritage’.

That’s what the Altean colonists believe. 

Keith is part-Galra. He’s not Altean at all.

He represents everything the colonists hate. 

It’s why they hurt him so badly.

Keith doesn’t want to believe that he’ll turn out like Lotor, or Senak, or Zarkon, but with every day that passes, it feels like the walls are closing in around him and -

_Oh, God, what will he tell Coran?_

_He’s failed Allura_

_She’s dead, and now Coran is all alone_

_I know what it’s like, to be all alone_

_I’m sorry, Coran_

_I’m so sorry_

_It should have been me_

_I should have died instead_

_No one’s wanting for me, back on Earth_

_But Allura_

_She’s strong and smart and so, so loved_

_She’s important_

_She can’t be gone, please_

_She can’t be dead, she can’t be dead, please, please_

_I couldn't help her_

_It’s my fault, it’s my fault, if I’d been faster_

_She’d still be alive_

_It’s all my fault_

Allura’s lost, drowning. She can’t breathe.

The guilt, the sadness, it’s far more than anything she’s ever encountered before.

He cares, so much.

But he’s been alone for so long.

How can he bear it? 

Someone’s calling her name. 

Romelle?

No.

 _Keith_.

Allura comes back to herself with a short, harsh exhale of breath, and sees that one of Keith’s eyes, red-rimmed and swollen, is partway open and looking for her.

”...’llura?” He asks, and the in the fading connection between their minds, she senses a flicker of hope - dim, but constant. A tiny candle amid a sea of darkness.

_Oh._

_That’s how._

She sniffs and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand before answering. 

“It’s me.”

He doesn’t answer. 

She hugs him closer.

That’t the thing about friends.

Sometimes, you don’t have to say anything at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are awesome! I’m on Tumblr, under the same username. Come say hi! :D


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